We start off with a reccomendation of sorts of the Speculative Grammarian Podcast, and George’s own long post on romanization.  Then we get into the meat of the show talking about all kinds of irregularity and “regular irregularity”.  Then we take a 180-degree turn and talk about the insanely regular Esperanto. Top of Show Greeting:... Read more »

We talk about one of William’s pet peeves in conlang descriptions and linguistics in general: the overuse of the word “emphasis”.  We start out with some very strong reccomendations against using it in phonology, and then talk about some more standard terms you might use instead when talking about discourse or syntax.  We also review... Read more »

We have a guest on, Olle Heikilä, who we totally didn’t forget to add to the Skype call, and have a nice discussion on grammatical voice and what it’s for, what you can include, and just in general.  If you believe what your English teacher taught you about voice, prepare to be disabuse.  We also... Read more »

After some observations about the merits of Star Wars and plastic chopsticks, we tell you all kinds of stuff about possession: alienable vs inalienable, various marking strategies, “to have” and more.  Oh, and we talk about Abakwi. Top of Show Greeting: rejistanian Conlang: Abakwi Feedback: Email from Matt Pearson: Hi George, I finally had a... Read more »

We talk a little about what we like and dislike about alien languages — and what concepts we think are actually likely to work.  Then we reveiw Ebisédian. Top of Show Greeting: Cardonian Conlang: Ebisédian Feedback: Five-Star Reviews: Great for both people interested in conlanging and linguistics in general by stingerbrg I’m fairly new at the... Read more »

George’s father has pragmatics issues, but anyway … pronouns!  (Almost) every language is going to have pronouns of some sort.  We talk all kinds — closed-class, open-class, free, clitic, and even having pronouns for bizarrely specific people.  Also, we review Baranxe’i Links and Resources: Swahili concord (alternate) Mixtec Xavante (look for the reference to a’ama) WALS on demonstratives... Read more »

Bianca’s out for this episode, so William and I take the opportunity to talk about something she hates so much she wouldn’t let us have a show about it: poetry!  Figure out how to choose good poetic devices for your conlang, and how history can affect the complexity of poetry.  Also we talk about the... Read more »

We talk about ideophones, a fun, fun class of words that describe a general feeling.  We also review a language that’s not quite an elflang, so William doesn’t quite hate it. Top of Show Greeting: Dothraki Links and Resources The Ideophone Ideophone definition Japanese ideophones Daniel Tammet inventing an ideophone Featured Conlang: Old Albic Feedback:... Read more »

We puzzle through the very difficult and complex subject of thematic roles and role marking, and then review the awesomely complicated Okuna. Top of Show Greeting: Standard Telèmor Links and Resources: Fiat Lingua paper Chemehuevi (predicate marking langauge) Lexical Semantics Featured Conlang: Okuna (formerly known as Tokana) An excerpt from the grammar: Compare also the following... Read more »

We finish out our Holy Trinity of Verbs with Mood — a slippery, slippery subject if there ever was one.  Of course, after trying to make some sense out of that, we move on to review South Eresian Top of Show Greeting: tzoi Rescources: Wikipedia on Mood Conlang: South Eresian (blog) Feedback: Email from James... Read more »